Successful 5th Edition For MIA ANIMATION

The annual MIA ANIMATION Conference and Festival is an extremely interesting festival celebrating animation, art, technology in the growing economy, 3D media, game design, and much more. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the conference festival and the opening of MAGIC (Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex) at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus.

The event was filled up to the brim with workshops and guest speakers to accommodate everyone’s taste. Industry professionals from everywhere attended the event, including animation directors from Walt Disney Animation who worked on films like Frozen and Big Hero 6, Animators from Dreamworks, Producers from 20th Century Fox, and more.

Highlights from the event ranged from the After-Effects code for motion designers, which is a program or application made for motion designing designed around the use of expression tools to create relationships properties for motion design. It’s an application that others can use since it uses JavaScript, a case-sensitive language used in coding for motion design.

During the Copyright and IP workshop, attendees learned about the legal side of video gaming and how game production tends to have a lot more hurdles to jump before going into production. Guitar Hero, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros, and Grand Theft Auto, to name a few, all had to overcome copyright issues so we all could play the games we all know and love. Another point touched upon were new ideas for video games and how getting Trademark Services (slogans, logos, colors, scents and sounds, etc.) early on helps make matters a bit easier for business.

At the Indie Game Competition, three game developers and their respective games competed for the top spot in the competition for prizes and recognition; Gem Wars, a 2D side scrolling fighter game where players battle it out against friends locally or online, Galaxy Games another battle it out multiplayer game that involves lots of play with friends, and Heroes of Issachar a first-person shooter with strategy tower defense elements inspired by games like The Elder Scrolls Skyrim and Age of Empires.

Overall, ending with a huge animation festival showcasing all the talent at the festival ranging from art animation, video games to media design and software programming. MIA ANIMATION was a fantastic way to show the talents of the students and the rising growth of the video game industry and beyond.